The use of wireless networks have become more common during the recent years due to several aspects such as e.g. an increased number of service providers, increasing transmission rates, decreasing usage costs and decreasing prices of the wireless equipment. Wireless networks enable access to computing resources for devices that are not physically connected to a network.
Examples of popular services provided through wireless networks are e.g. Internet access, multimedia services such as e.g. streaming of music and films, etc.
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is a common technology for wireless network access which is specified in IEEE 802.11 standards. WLANs typically operate over a fairly limited range, such as an office building or a building block. The components of a WLAN are wireless user devices, a.k.a. stations (STA) and access points (AP). Examples of STAs are e.g. laptop computers, mobile phones, smart phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).
The APs are network nodes that allow the STAs to communicate wirelessly and to connect to another network, typically an organization's wired infrastructure or the Internet.
WLAN provides wireless network access, both for public and private purposes. Public network access is usually provided by hotels, airports, restaurants etc. for their customers. In some cases there may even be city-wide networks available for the public, free of charge. Private WLANs are normally not intended for public use, unless permission has been given by the network/access point owner. The private WLAN is usually only intended to be used by the members of the household where the private WLAN is located.
The most common methods of protecting a wireless network are by the use of authentication and or encryption. There are also other ways of protecting a WLAN by e.g. specifying the Media Access Control addresses of the STAs that are allowed to connect to the AP.
But many home users leave their private WLAN unprotected because it is more difficult to set up a protected WLAN, compared to setting up an unprotected WLAN. The WLAN network can usually be made operational just by connecting the electrical power to the equipment. The activation of protection however, requires configuration changes. A wireless connection without protection may be referred to as an open wireless connection. If a wireless network is left totally without protection, which is a very common case, it is very easy for an outsider to attach to the network without the owner of the access point being able to control it.
The common prior art methods of a STA connecting to a WLAN comprise displaying a list of active WLANs in the area, on the STA. Thereafter the user of the STA selects which WLAN to connect to, where after the WLAN attach is performed, by the WLAN access functionality of the STA, to the WLAN chosen by the user.
However, in some cases depending on the settings in the STA, the connecting to a WLAN may be performed automatically. The WLAN attach procedure may furthermore be executed in the background of the STA, without the user noticing or even knowing it.
A major problem associated with the present WLAN access process is that the use of an open WLAN connection without authorization may be regarded as a crime. In some countries it is no longer permitted to attach to, and hence also use, a WLAN network intended for private use, unless permission has been granted by the owner. It has been stated that the use of an open WLAN connection without authorization may be regarded as “unauthorized use” and one accused was sentenced to a six day fine.
In WLAN there is no way for the AP to inform to STAs whether the network is intended for private or public use. This means that a private unprotected WLAN may be unintentionally connected to without permission, since the user has no information about whether the WLAN available for access is intended for private use or public use. Furthermore, with the present WLAN access procedure the only way for a user of a STA to be granted/get permission from the network owner, i.e. the owner of the access point, to access an open wireless connection is to agree with the owner of AP that he/she is allowed to use the wireless network. At present there isn't any technical method or protocol mechanism to control this permission in case of an unprotected WLAN.
Having the recent Finnish court decisions in mind the user of a STA at present thus risks disobeying the law as soon as a wireless connection is established! This may lead to a decreased usage of the WLAN technology due to the users' fear of and unwillingness to commit a crime.